To stand
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G4739 describes standing or standing firm. The governed BSB table supplies ten forms, ranging from people physically standing outside or standing in prayer to holding one's ground in freedom, faith, one Spirit, the Lord, and apostolic teaching.
Reader summary
Full entry for στήκω (G4739) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4739 describes standing or standing firm. The governed BSB table supplies ten forms, ranging from people physically standing outside or standing in prayer to holding one's ground in freedom, faith, one Spirit, the Lord, and apostolic teaching.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Stand firm (3), are standing firm (1), he stands (1), stood (1), to uphold (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 3:31. Its strongest book concentrations include Mark (2), Philippians (2), 1 Corinthians (1), 1 Thessalonians (1).
G4739 describes standing or standing firm. The governed BSB table supplies ten forms, ranging from people physically standing outside or standing in prayer to holding one's ground in freedom, faith, one Spirit, the Lord, and apostolic teaching. John 8:44 uses the governed code for the devil's failure to uphold truth, and Romans 14:4 speaks of another servant standing before his own master. The physical, relational, ethical, and doctrinal settings must not be collapsed into a slogan about stubbornness.
The selected SBLGNT-based artifact counts nine forms because it excludes John 8:44 from G4739. Its discourse-aspect subset counts eight and also omits Romans 14:4. This source uses all ten governed BSB rows, preserves both narrower artifact scopes, and does not claim that one local witness silently corrects another. The John 8 saying addresses particular opponents within a conflict involving Jewish speakers, including Jesus. It cannot support antisemitism, racialized devil ancestry, collective guilt, or labeling living groups children of Satan.
The stand-firm commands receive their content from their letters. Galatians 5 concerns freedom from a compelled covenant requirement and freedom expressed through love, not hostility toward Jewish people or absolute personal autonomy. Philippians joins standing with shared gospel life, humility, and named coworkers, not enforced conformity or suppression of women and dissent. Second Thessalonians refers to teaching delivered by the apostles in speech or letter, not every inherited custom, leader's preference, rumor, or end-time speculation.
Standing firm is not rigidity, immunity from correction, paranoia, physical ability, or emotional invulnerability. Mark 11 joins standing in prayer with forgiveness, but forgiveness does not automatically restore trust or access. Romans 14 limits judgment in disputable matters without silencing reports of abuse or serious wrongdoing. First Corinthians 16 places alertness, courage, strength, and standing inside a command that everything be done in love, so the verse cannot sustain gender domination, militarized leadership, or contempt for fear and vulnerability.
Ten governed forms move from ordinary physical posture to truth, prayer, freedom, nonjudgment, shared gospel allegiance, pastoral encouragement, and fidelity to apostolic teaching.
Stand firm, then
The command protects Christ-given freedom from renewed enslavement and leads toward service through love.
The Lord is able to make him stand
The Lord's sustaining authority limits contemptuous judgment among servants.
Stand firm in one spirit
Gospel-worthy life includes shared resilience and cooperative witness.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Emphasizes steadfast endurance and resolute firmness, especially standing firm in faith or conviction.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I stand fast, persevere
Read verseI stand fast, persevere
Read verseI stand fast, persevere
Read verseI stand fast, persevere
Read verseI stand fast, persevere
Read verseI stand fast, persevere
Read verseI stand fast, persevere
Read verseI stand fast, persevere
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 8 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
στήκω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G4739 does not commend immobility for its own sake. The letters specify a living center: faith, Christ-given freedom, one Spirit, the Lord, and apostolic gospel teaching. Mark uses the same governed identity for ordinary physical posture, Romans locates a servant's standing in the Master's power, and John supplies a locally bounded truth use. Christian firmness therefore combines conviction with dependence, love, humility, and willingness to be corrected.
It can resist coercion and deception while refusing paranoia, ethnic hostility, gender domination, or leader control. A faithful community stands together without erasing conscience, welcomes evidence, protects reporting, distinguishes disputed practices from serious harm, and trusts the Lord rather than a performance of invulnerability.
Gal.5.1
The ten governed BSB forms include four present middle-form imperatives parsed as active in sense, three present active indicatives, one imperfect active indicative in John 8:44, one present active participle, and one third-singular present active indicative. The selected artifact's nine-form morphology omits John 8:44, while its eight-form discourse subset also omits Romans 14:4.
Israel's Scriptures repeatedly join standing with the Lord's sustaining presence, covenant faithfulness, truthful witness, and endurance under threat. These themes can illuminate the New Testament commands without making every Hebrew standing verb a direct lexical counterpart.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain